Carver Skateboards, based in Gardena, California, has been clawing its way out of the market about-face that began early last year, firing up marketing that’s helped it reach well beyond the core as it rides out a hardgoods downturn.
Take the collaboration with Parisian women’s ready-to-wear brand Maje initiated by a French distributor and used for social media giveaways. That deal in particular made sense with women’s being one of the largest-growing demographics for Carver, in addition to kids and non-surfers. That momentum’s being complemented by a raft of events, including demo days, surf contests, the X-Games inauguration day, Ride Together Surfskate Jam tour (a recent one was held this month at Wave Rave in Torrance), and the GRLSWIRL Swirl Fest 2023 coming up Aug. 5 in Venice, California.
It’s a different scenario from the one Carver found itself in in 2020 and much of 2021, when it couldn’t produce boards fast enough to keep up with pandemic-induced demand, coupled with a trajectory that began well before COVID. Now, it’s ramped up more marketing efforts, in the way of collaborations and events, to help push product.
“We just traded the pandemic for a war and global inflation and it all came to a grinding halt that caught everyone off guard,” said Carver Vice President of Sales Eben Woodall. “A lot of skate companies got stuck with a lot of inventory. So, it’s just been an effort to right-size the market, working with our distributors to balance our inventory, which in turn has created a higher volume of marketing all around the world for Carver’s distributors.”
That includes interesting collaborations, such as the previously mentioned work with Maje.
“Every kind of unique scenario has been used to keep surfskate alive and keep the heartbeat and lifeblood of surfskate going,” Woodall said.
The privately-held company doesn’t report its financials, but Woodall said sales this year are expected to be “marginally down” from 2021 and 2022. Still, he said, Carver “maintains a healthy market position, steady sales, and consistent sell-through performance.”
The decline is largely in line with broader industry challenges around hardgoods and skate in particular. Within the core specialty shops that make up the ActionWatch retailer panel, Carver is also down, according to Senior Director Eric Stanton.
The bright spot, he said, was Carver long completes, which ticked up 3% in the first half of 2023 compared to the prior-year period for the ActionWatch panel of retailers.
Carver currently counts 400 active accounts domestically and a couple thousand internationally.
Carver Ambassador Taylor Arroway. Photo courtesy of Carver Skateboards.
Seizing Opportunities
Even with the current headwinds, the company sees several avenues for growth.
“As much as Carver is a surf trainer and skateboard, it’s also a lifestyle just to invite more people into the space from different areas and different demographics,” Woodall said.
Women’s is a group that had been steadily growing pre-pandemic, corresponding with what’s happening more broadly in pro-surfing for women. That segment continues to gain ground for Carver. And, Woodall said, the collaboration with Venice-based female-founded skate collective GRLSWIRL is further fueling that growth.
Elsewhere, as more wave pool projects currently in the development pipeline come online, they represent another major initiative Carver sees as a growth play for the brand.
There’s also potential in less traditional surfing groups, including river surfing and stand-up paddle boarding in non-coastal markets.
The company’s observed meet-up groups for various board sports pop up in the Great Lakes region, which is where the company’s positioned a new sales rep. States such as Arizona, Texas, Colorado, and Ohio are all seeing traction, along with the broader Midwest.
“It’s a slow drip, but its gaining ground and we’re able to onboard new accounts monthly if not weekly to bring surfskate to areas that aren’t predominantly coastal,” Woodall said of the sales team’s progress.
The move into snow is described as still in its infancy, but there’s increased activity in mountain resort towns for Carver, according to Woodall.
“We’re starting to see traction between snowboarders and Carver,” he said. “We’re gathering data so we can effectively strike somewhere where it makes sense.”
From the Carver x Channel Islands Surfboards collaboration. Photo courtesy of Carver Skateboards.
International and the Outlook
Overseas, Carver’s business has been choppy for various reasons.
“Ultimately, the international business is suffering from inflation and, in some areas, you have diminished currency exchange rates,” Woodall said. “So, the European buying power is less than it was.”
That’s hit places such as Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, and South Africa.
Coupled with the broader softening in skate hardgoods, it’s just another down cycle the industry is now working through, Woodall said.
He’s been through several, so the how-to of climbing out of softening market conditions isn’t necessarily new for him and many others.
“This (downturn) was unique because it was pandemic driven. It was like nothing in our lifetimes that we’ve been through,” Woodall said. “It was a combination of a pandemic that was driving such high demand that it wasn’t sustainable. So, this down trend is the flip side of the market conditions created by the pandemic and maybe it was a situation where the fuse was burning at both ends, but nobody saw it coming.”
Ultimately, Woodall sees the industry and Carver being able to push through the challenges and get inventory under control by the first half of next year.
“Everyone’s optimistic and hopeful that the market’s going to make a change between March/April 2024,” Woodall said. “Nobody’s throwing their hands up, screaming ‘I’m going out of business.’”
Kari Hamanaka can be reached at kari@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
